PV Sindhu missed out on her second consecutive Olympic final after losing 18-21, 12-21 to second seed Tai Tzu Ying in the semi-finals on Saturday. She will take on He Bingjiao of China in the bronze medal bout on Sunday. Sindhu is 6-9 behind head-to-head in her career. Chen of China defeated compatriot Hi Bingjiao 21-16, 13-21, 21-12 in the first semi-final on Saturday.
Sindhu had made it to the final at the last Olympics in Rio, where she lost to Spain's Carolina Marin in a tight three-match match. She was bidding to become only the third woman in history to make two singles finals at the Olympics after Bang Soo-hyun (Silver, 1992 and Gold, 1996) and Zhang Ning (Gold, 2004 and 2008).
Sindhu had lost a single game in this year's Olympics and she kept that confidence in the early stages of the match as she took an 8-4 lead in a short span of time.
After playing a marathon match against Thailand's Ratchanok Intanon in the quarterfinals, Tai was slow to get out of the block and Sindhu's smashes seemed to be in fine working order as Sindhu pushed Tai deep with her power and then Used his drop shots to draw Tai. Net.
Tai's game improved as the first game progressed but Sindhu was able to keep her nose ahead and was the better player for the majority of the opening game, even with a net cord on a few occasions .
With both players tied at 18-18, Tai improved her game and used her signature drop shots from behind the court as Sindhu got out of position more than once.